#701 Persona 1966 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Criterion Collection (LINK) Persona is one of the greatest film, if not the best of all time, of Ingmar Bergman whose body of works ranging from sex comedy to bleak existential crisis, from Mozart’s opera to television series. I have incessantly awed by the uniqueness of Persona ever since I… Continue reading #701 Persona (1966)
Ingmar Bergman: Part 6 (1977-2003) Bergman100 (Letterboxd) 39. The Serpent’s Egg (1977) – Criterion The Serpent’s Egg has been considered as one of the weakest effort amid Ingmar Bergman’s output, and perhaps best remembered as Bergman’s first film made outside Sweden during his exile due to the lawsuit of tax evasion in which Bergman eventually… Continue reading Ingmar Bergman: Part 6 (1977-2003)
#261 Fanny & Alexander 1982 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Criterion Collection (LINK) Rewatching Fanny & Alexander this week as my second last entry of the (near) complete Bergman retrospective, it feels very much like a family reunion, embraced with gleaming warmth and happiness which I wish never end, or at least take place annually onwards. It’s… Continue reading #261 Fanny & Alexander (1982)
#60 Autumn Sonata 1978 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Criterion Collection (LINK) Ingmar Bergman‘s best works always find a way to explore the human soul thoroughly by channeling its inner “demon” via either the spiritual route (loss of faith and existential crisis) or the family route (futility of marriage and scarred childhood). Of course there is often… Continue reading #60 Autumn Sonata (1978)
Ingmar Bergman: Part 5 (1968-76) Bergman100 (Letterboxd) 29. Hour of the Wolf (1968) – Criterion Hour of the Wolf is by and large an allegory of disintegration, a psychological depiction of a man’s declination into insanity. Like the dreams in Wild Strawberries (1957) and the introductory montage in Persona (1966), Hour of the Wolf is… Continue reading Ingmar Bergman: Part 5 (1968-76)
#229 Scenes from a Marriage 1973 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Criterion Collection (LINK) Rewatching Scenes from a Marraige in 2018, I’m completely stunned by how timely and contemporary it still holds. It’s a modernistic deconstruction of marriage and an assessment of the underlying issues that result in its dissolution, which are still aptly… Continue reading #229 Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Face to Face 1976 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Finally I got the chance to watch the complete TV version, the 176-minute Face to Face in theater, since I have only watched the theatrical version once several years ago. I remember I liked the film well enough then, but this time sitting at the theater… Continue reading Face to Face (1976)
Ingmar Bergman: Part 4 (1961-66) Bergman100 (Letterboxd) 23. Through a Glass Darkly (1961) – Criterion I would like to begin my review on Through a Glass Darkly with the film’s last scene, most precisely the conversation between David (Gunnar Björnstrand) and his son Minus (Lars Passgård) regarding the one thing they could held on amid the formidable “new world”… Continue reading Ingmar Bergman: Part 4 (1961-66)
#211 The Silence 1963 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Criterion Collection (LINK) The Silence is the final entry of a loose thematic trilogy by Ingmar Bergman, released just after Through a Glass Darkly (1961) and Winter Light (1963). Bergman once wrote “these three films deal with reduction. Through a Glass Darkly – conquered certainty. Winter Light… Continue reading #211 The Silence (1963)
#210 Winter Light 1963 // Sweden // Ingmar Bergman Criterion Collection (LINK) If I have to pick an Ingmar Bergman film that exemplifies his unceasing central theme on religion and spirituality, as well as the resulted doubt and agony from their futility, I would choose Winter Light without a hesitation, in Swedish the title is Nattvardsgästerna which… Continue reading #210 Winter Light (1963)
The Films in My Life (OnCriterion) 